I didnt get up till 11am.  Si as usual was already up working.  This lady of leisure is great but I do feel guilty as I can’t help.

Anyway, we were on the afternoon boat and our first dive was at the ‘Lighthouse’  Neither of us had dove this before so didn’t know quite what to expect.

One of the videographers Jace, was taking one of his students down so decided to tag along to see what’s involved with the videographer course.   Jace gave tips on buoyancy, fin pivots and handling of the actual camera then let the student loose  ..only interferring when needed.  We could both tell that the student was more than over enthusiastic as he darted all over the place.  You could tell that he needed to work on his buoyancy but nevertheless, he was filming lots and doing pretty well.

The visibility today was lovely.   We spotted a few blue spotted stingray, puffa fish and huge schools of baitballs (random small fish)  There was loads of brain, fan and tubular coral everywhere with a diverse  amount of colour.  I really liked this dive site.

Our second dive was at ‘White Rock’  and yet again vis was fabulous.  Again we tagged along with Jace trying to spot stuff for them to film.  We bumped into two puffa fish which seemed very aggressive with each other, another blue spotted ray and a huge school of baraccuaa mixed amongst huge baitballs (small random fish)  there were a few triggers about but they just carried on munching.   The last 15mins or so we were just at 8 meters just transfixed on the huge baitballs. 

Tonight we have rehearsals for The Rocky Horror Crystal Show   ..Ggrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaatttttttt!!!

Jen
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Another beautiful day!!   Si and I sat outside on the balcony drinking our early morning tea  …This is the life!!

Today we were on the afternoon boat double diving, going to ‘Chumphon’. In the last month or so, Whale shark have been spotted there but as Ive said before,  they must know we are back and have disappeared.

Both dives were good, started off with a deep dive of 30mtrs   ..saw a few really big barracuda’s, trevally’s, slighly shallower we tried to find the lion fish but he’s moved  …the schools of fish in this place is incredible …at one point I think it must have been a Jack or something going in for the kill and the sound whoosh that you could hear and feel from all the baby fish was unreal.  At one moment I thought that something from the deep was going to appear  ..eerie but brilliant..

Now were are both sat in ‘Safety Stop’ blogging, working and catching up with mails  ..whilst sipping a strawberry and chocolate icecream shake  YUM!!

Jen

We were on the early boat this morning, so up at 6am.

Finally we get to go to the other side of the island to ‘Hin Wong’    Unfortunately the visibility wasn’t too great below 15m or so but there were some beautiful fan, whip and table coral. We bumped into a couple or trigger fish which seemed pretty placid and were fortunate to see a couple of razor fish.  At the end of the dive we just  stayed above the pinnacle probably 5-7 meters, the visibility was perfect.  The abundance of colour and fish was just amazing!

Our second dive was at ‘Green Rock’ which is known for its Trigger fish pitts  ..I think the last time I dove her, one of the dive master trainees refused to lead as she’d been triggered numerous times.  I was pretty apprehensive at first as we ascended and there were at least three trigger fish swimming around.  For some reason, even though it is mating season, they all seemed pretty preoccupied and left us all alone throughout the whole dive.

The dive itself was fabulous.  So much variation compared to the last dive.  Visibility was great. There were a couple of swim throughs, moray eels, huge travelly, angel fish, butterfly fish, huge schools of damsel fish and  I spotted the smallest baby sweetlips ever… they are so cute as they haven’t mastered swimming yet and just seem to be doing “The Twist” dance.

After the dives, we headed home, had some lunch and slept for an hour or so  ..these early morning dves really get to you ;-D

That evening we showered and went back into Mae Haad to ‘Dirty Nelly’s’ to watch a couple of Open Water students videos.  The first video, they’d been lucky enough to catch an Eagle ray on film …so jealous!!
After the films were shown they put the football on (Yawn)  …so we finished our drinks and went to Sairee to  ‘Lotus’, where we had a beer and watched the guys dancing with the fire poi.   Si was pretty tired so we left after one beer and headed home.

Jen
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